KDE: Project Silk Should Integrate Web

The KDE project's Sebastian Kügler dreams of a desktop that melts, like silk, into the Web. In a writeup to KDE developers he promotes Project Silk for better Web integration.

Sebastian Kügler isn't appealing just to KDE developers involved in Web technologies, but also to application developers who want to add Web integration value to the user experience. Social desktops such as YouTube, geoweb applications and technical documents should be usable outside Web browsers, whether as wiki pages or private and confidential as webmail accounts.

Project Silk shouldn't be a mere "one-off or a single application," Kügler emphasizes. Instead, it demands participation from all KDE developers working on different programs with a single goal. Kügler assigns "silkiness" factors to applications in how close they come to Silk goals: one point for using files off the Web, one point for caching and another for clients to process Web content. Apps get another bonus point if they support multiple devices, such as a smartphone and mega-display screen.

As examples of already successful apps, Kügler cites OpenStreetMap integration in Marble, photo uploads from digiKam and web services embedded in Amarok. The trick now is to coordinate all these Web technologies among the individual apps and share code. There is already a separate Silk git repository with libraries, such as QtJson, that can serve developers. Project Silk also has its own mailing list for discussion and coordination.